ShareThisBy BERRY TRAMEL
Thursday, November 16, 2006
Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops is rethinking his stance on an expanded college football playoff. I'm with you, Bob.
I've lost all patience with pollsters who count a victory over Louisiana-Monroe the same as a victory over UCLA. All patience with the lords who pull the teeth from strength of schedule.
Stoops' motivation differs from mine.
Stoops, as befitting a coach in the belly of the beast, worries himself with national-title game positioning and BCS rankings. He's got to look out for the Sooners.
Still, his concern rings hollow related to OU. The Sooners have been well-treated by the current system.
In both 2003 and 2004, three teams had to be squeezed into a two-team playoff. On both occasions, Oklahoma was not the odd team out.
My umbrage is not school-specific. The current system makes for bad Saturdays.
Some argue - I've even done it myself - that college football has the best regular season in sport. What was I thinking?
The opposite is true. College football's regular season stinks, at least a decent part of it.
Once conference play arrives, and teams are required to play certain foes, then the pageantry and the spectacle and rousing gridiron play develops.
But when schools are on their own to schedule, many a Saturday stinks. Unfair fights sprout up all over the place.
So I'm for an expanded playoff, if it means beefier non-conference schedules. If it means the same regular season, followed by a juicer December, then I'll pass. I want September fixed more than December.
I'm holding out for better scheduling. That's what must be the result of an expanded playoff.
Truth is, don't fix the regular season, and the sport will wither, no matter how spectacular the post-season.
Look no further than hoops. Despite all the grandeur of March Madness, college basketball is in mini-crisis.
All kinds of schools struggle to interest fans in the regular season. That's because too many games are automatic victories, exhibitions that are bogus for the consumer.
So if we expand the playoffs from the current two teams to eight or even 16, fine, so long as the teams included don't tip-toe into the field.
Go to 16 teams and scrap the BCS. Scrap polls and computers and algebraic equations as the determinate. Use them as tools, not as authority.
Put together a committee just like basketball, and ask the football council to follow the same path as hoops. Don't grant Wisconsin or West Virginia, both of which figure to finish 11-1, an automatic pass.
Reward schools that play rugged schedules. Penalize a school that plays four walkovers.
Or do this. Grant all 11 I-A conferences an automatic berth and the five power leagues a second berth, with each league deciding who gets in as No. 2. That means the 16-team field is set, and the committee can draw up the bracket.
Notre Dame? Join a conference, Irish.
Armed with conference finish as the only means to the playoff, teams are free to schedule up. September losses don't cripple your chances.
Playing decent opponents better prepares your squad and is more appealing to television.
Everybody's happy. And the regular season is saved.
